208 VICTORIA BARRIER. 



catacomb of Diatomacece ; nor is the growth of those 

 old dwellers on our earth diminished in its latter days. 

 These earliest inhabitants of the world seem destined 

 to outlive beings of larger growth, whose race has a 

 definite limit, both ends of its existence comprised far 

 within the duration of a species of Diatomacece. Many 

 of the existing species are found in a fossil state, even 

 in early beds. No part of our modern seas is without 

 this ever-springing vegetation. Of this fact the late 

 Antarctic Expedition * afforded many striking proofs. 

 One of the objects of that expedition was to obtain 

 soundings of the deep sea ; and these were made at 

 depths which would have engulfed Chimborazo in the 

 abyss : yet the lead constantly brought up Diatomacece, 

 even if nothing else. Nor did the eternal winter of the 

 Antarctic Sea diminish the number of these vegetables. 

 Other sea-plants ceased at Cockburn Island, in the low 

 latitude of 64 S. ; and thenceforward the Diatomacece 

 formed the whole vegetation. The icy wall, called Vic- 

 toria Barrier, which at length stopped the southward 

 progress of the intrepid navigators, was found em- 

 browned with them. Floating masses of ice, when 

 melted, yield them in millions. In many places they 

 formed a scum on the surface of the icy sea. But per- 

 haps the most remarkable fact observed, is the result of 

 soundings continued for four hundred miles along the 

 Victoria Barrier, where the existence of a bank, of un- 

 known thickness, but at least of the extent of surface 

 stated, was found composed almost wholly of skeletons 

 of these microscopic vegetables. Nothing else came 

 * See Hooker's " Flora Antarctica," vol. ii. 



